The Novantae were people of the Iron age , as recorded in Ptolemy 's Geography (written c. 150AD). The Novantae are thought to have lived in what is now Galloway and Carrick , in southwesternmost Scotland .
65-630: While the Novantae are assumed to be Celts , their specific ethnicity and culture have been the subject of debate for centuries. While Bede referred to a people called the Niduarian and suggested these were Picts , the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.) described them as "a tribe of Celtic Gaels called Novantae or Atecott Picts." Scottish author Edward Grant Ries has identified the Novantae (along with other early tribes of southern Scotland) as
130-584: A Brythonic -speaking culture. Modern archeological excavations at Rispain Camp , near Whithorn , suggest that a large fortified farmstead was occupied between 100 BC and 200 AD, indicating that the people living in the area at that time were engaged in agriculture. The only reliable historical reference to the Novantae is from the Geography of Ptolemy in c. 150, where he gives their homeland and primary towns. They are found in no other source. They are unique among
195-465: A Brittonic language of northern Britain. Celtic regions of mainland Europe are those whose residents claim a Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language survives; these include western Iberia, i.e. Portugal and north-central Spain ( Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , Castile and León , Extremadura ). Continental Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe and Insular Celts are
260-682: A Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), the oldest of which pre-date the La Tène period . Other early inscriptions, appearing from the early La Tène period in the area of Massilia , are in Gaulish , which was written in the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest. Celtiberian inscriptions, using their own Iberian script, appear later, after about 200 BC. Evidence of Insular Celtic
325-559: A borrowing from Frankish * Walholant , 'Roman-land' (see Gaul: Name ) , the root of which is Proto-Germanic * walha- , 'foreigner, Roman, Celt', whence the English word Welsh ( Old English wælisċ ). Proto-Germanic * walha comes from the name of the Volcae , a Celtic tribe who lived first in southern Germany and central Europe, then migrated to Gaul. This means that English Gaul , despite its superficial similarity,
390-798: A collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia , identified by their use of Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the Gauls ; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci of Iberia; the Britons , Picts , and Gaels of Britain and Ireland; the Boii ; and the Galatians . The interrelationships of ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world are unclear and debated; for example over
455-517: A combination of force and diplomacy quieted discontent among the Britons who had been conquered previously, Agricola built forts in their territories in 79. In 80 he marched to the Firth of Tay , campaigning against the peoples there. He did not return until 81, at which time he consolidated his gains in the lands that he had conquered. The Novantae were later said to have caused trouble along Hadrian's Wall , and
520-752: A common cultural and linguistic heritage more than a genetic one. Celtic cultures seem to have been diverse, with the use of a Celtic language being the main thing they had in common. Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall , the Isle of Man , and Brittany ; also called the Celtic nations . These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent. The four are Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton ; plus two recent revivals, Cornish (a Brittonic language ) and Manx (a Goidelic language ). There are also attempts to reconstruct Cumbric ,
585-607: A contemporary of Talhaearn , Taliesin , Bluchbardd and Cian. References to Aneirin are found in the work of the Poets of the Princes ( Beirdd y Tywysogion ), but his fame declined in the later Middle Ages until the re-assertion of Welsh identity by antiquarian writers of the Tudor period . Today, the reputation of his poetry remains high, though the exact identity of the author is more controversial. The works attributed to Aneirin are preserved in
650-452: A fraudulent source, his maps and drawings are untainted, and continue to be held in the highest regard. Befitting the single historical mention of the Novantae by Ptolemy, many historians have largely included the Novantae im passim in their works, if they are mentioned at all. William Forbes Skene ( Celtic Scotland , 1886) briefly relates their notice in Ptolemy, adding his conjectures as to
715-510: A late 13th-century manuscript known as the Book of Aneirin ( Welsh : Llyfr Aneirin ). The language has been partially modernized into Middle Welsh , but other portions in Old Welsh indicate that at least some of the poetry dates from around Aneirin's time, and its attribution, therefore, may well be genuine. The work would have survived through oral transmission until first written down, perhaps in
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#1733104449616780-728: A result, these items quickly became associated with the Celts, so much so that by the 1870s scholars began to regard finds of the La Tène as 'the archaeological expression of the Celts'". This cultural network was overrun by the Roman Empire, though traces of La Tène style were still seen in Gallo-Roman artifacts . In Britain and Ireland, the La Tène style survived precariously to re-emerge in Insular art . The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to be challenged in
845-615: A rethinking of the meaning of "Celtic". John T. Koch and Barry Cunliffe have developed this 'Celtic from the West' theory. It proposes that the proto-Celtic language arose along the Atlantic coast and was the lingua franca of the Atlantic Bronze Age cultural network, later spreading inland and eastward. More recently, Cunliffe proposes that proto-Celtic had arisen in the Atlantic zone even earlier, by 3000 BC, and spread eastwards with
910-524: A revival. The first recorded use of the name 'Celts' – as Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) in Ancient Greek – was by Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC, when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille ), southern Gaul . In the fifth century BC, Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the source of the Danube and in the far west of Europe. The etymology of Keltoi
975-651: A single culture or ethnic group. A new theory suggested that Celtic languages arose earlier, along the Atlantic coast (including Britain, Ireland, Armorica and Iberia ), long before evidence of 'Celtic' culture is found in archaeology. Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick argued that "Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might date to the Bell Beaker culture of the Copper and Bronze Age (from c. 2750 BC). Martín Almagro Gorbea (2001) also proposed that Celtic arose in
1040-536: A tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. A Latin name for the Gauls, Galli ( pl. ), may come from a Celtic ethnic name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the Celtic expansion into Italy from the early fifth century BC. Its root may be Proto-Celtic *galno , meaning "power, strength" (whence Old Irish gal "boldness, ferocity", Welsh gallu "to be able, power"). The Greek name Γαλάται ( Galatai , Latinized Galatae ) most likely has
1105-711: Is available only from about 400 AD, in the form of Primitive Irish Ogham inscriptions . Besides epigraphic evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy (place names). Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2017) demonstrated that Celtic-related populations of the European Atlantic (Orkney Islands, Scottish, Irish, British, Bretons, Basques, Galicians) shared a common HLA system . Aneirin Aneirin ( Welsh pronunciation: [aˈnɛirɪn] ), also rendered as Aneurin or Neirin and Aneurin Gwawdrydd ,
1170-476: Is evidence that the Romans used it as the target of a military exercise, erecting two practice camps nearby and subjecting it to a mock siege. The only Roman military presence was a small fortlet at Gatehouse of Fleet , in the southeastern part of Novantae territory. The Roman remains that have been excavated are portable, such as might be carried or transported into the region. The absence of evidence of Roman presence
1235-539: Is in sharp contrast to the many remains of native habitation and strong points. Rispain Camp near Whithorn , once thought to be Roman, is now known to be the remains of a large fortified farmstead, occupied by natives before and during the Roman Era. In his account of the campaigns of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (governor 78 – 84), Tacitus offers no specific information on the peoples then living in Scotland. He says that after
1300-438: Is likely the sole survivor. After the fall of Owain, Aneirin is said to have been murdered, either by Eidyn son of Einygan or at the hands of an unnamed Cymric lord, whom the poet had offended by reproaching him in his poem Y Gododdin for not coming to the aid of Owain. The Welsh Triads describe Aneirin as "prince of bards" and "of flowing verse". Nennius praises him amongst the earliest Welsh poets or Cynfeirdd ,
1365-502: Is not actually derived from Latin Gallia (which should have produced * Jaille in French), though it does refer to the same ancient region. Celtic refers to a language family and, more generally, means 'of the Celts' or 'in the style of the Celts'. Several archaeological cultures are considered Celtic, based on unique sets of artefacts. The link between language and artefact is aided by
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#17331044496161430-526: Is primarily a linguistic label. In his 'Celtic from the Centre' theory, he argues that the proto-Celtic language did not originate in central Europe nor the Atlantic, but in-between these two regions. He suggests that it "emerged as a distinct Indo-European dialect around the second millennium BC , probably somewhere in Gaul [centered in modern France] ... whence it spread in various directions and at various speeds in
1495-497: Is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European * kʲel 'to hide' (seen also in Old Irish ceilid , and Modern Welsh celu ), * kʲel 'to heat' or * kel 'to impel'. It may come from the Celtic language . Linguist Kim McCone supports this view and notes that Celt- is found in the names of several ancient Gauls such as Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix . He suggests it meant the people or descendants of "the hidden one", noting
1560-641: The Histories of Herodotus, which placed the Celts at the source of the Danube . However, Stephen Oppenheimer shows that Herodotus seemed to believe the Danube rose near the Pyrenees , which would place the Ancient Celts in a region which is more in agreement with later classical writers and historians (i.e. in Gaul and Iberia). The theory was also partly based on the abundance of inscriptions bearing Celtic personal names in
1625-520: The 3rd millennium BC , suggesting that the spread of the Bell Beaker culture explained the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the variability of the Celtic peoples. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Alberto J. Lorrio and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero reviewed and built on Almagro Gorbea's work to present a model for the origin of Celtic archaeological groups in Iberia and proposing
1690-681: The Battle of Catraeth , in which an army raised by Gododdin attempted an ill-fated raid on the Angles of Bernicia . The work elegises the various warriors who fought alongside the Gododdin, among them the "Three Chiefs of Novant" and their substantial retinue. This Novant is evidently related to the Novantae tribe of the Iron Age. Ptolemy's placement of the Selgovae town of Trimontium was accepted to be somewhere along
1755-677: The Gaels ( Irish , Scots and Manx ) and the Celtic Britons ( Welsh , Cornish , and Bretons ) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Britain, Ireland, and other European territories such as Galicia . Today, Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton are still spoken in parts of their former territories, while Cornish and Manx are undergoing
1820-528: The Iberian Peninsula , Ireland and Britain. The languages developed into Celtiberian , Goidelic and Brittonic branches, among others. The mainstream view during most of the twentieth century is that the Celts and the proto-Celtic language arose out of the Urnfield culture of central Europe around 1000 BC, spreading westward and southward over the following few hundred years. The Urnfield culture
1885-533: The Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic languages are attested from the 4th century AD in Ogham inscriptions , though they were being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century AD. Elements of Celtic mythology are recorded in early Irish and early Welsh literature. Most written evidence of
1950-739: The Picts in raids on Roman Britain . He provides no authority for any of these assertions. Celts Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Celts ( / k ɛ l t s / KELTS , see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k / KEL -tik ) were
2015-640: The Southern Uplands in southeastern Scotland. The Novantae is inconsequential to the larger history of Scotland in Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History (2005) by Alistair Moffat, but he weaves a number of colourful though questionable details about them into his story. He says that their name means 'the Vigorous People', that they had kings and often acted in concert with the Selgovae and Brigantes , all of whom may have joined
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2080-457: The first millennium BC ". Sims-Williams says this avoids the problematic idea "that Celtic was spoken over a vast area for a very long time yet somehow avoided major dialectal splits", and "it keeps Celtic fairly close to Italy, which suits the view that Italic and Celtic were in some way linked ". The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age. The earliest records of
2145-411: The 9th century. Aneirin's best known work is Y Gododdin , a series of elegies for the warriors of the northern Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin who, in about 600, fell against the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at the Battle of Catraeth (probably Catterick, North Yorkshire ). The poetry abounds in textual difficulties and consequently interpretations vary. One stanza contains what may possibly be
2210-467: The Bell Beaker culture over the following millennium. His theory is partly based on glottochronology , the spread of ancient Celtic-looking placenames, and thesis that the Tartessian language was Celtic. However, the proposal that Tartessian was Celtic is widely rejected by linguists, many of whom regard it as unclassified. Celticist Patrick Sims-Williams (2020) notes that in current scholarship, 'Celt'
2275-424: The Britons resembled the Gauls in customs and religion. For at least 1,000 years the name Celt was not used at all, and nobody called themselves Celts or Celtic, until from about 1700, after the word 'Celtic' was rediscovered in classical texts, it was applied for the first time to the distinctive culture, history, traditions, language of the modern Celtic nations – Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and
2340-554: The Celtic-speaking people of the British and Irish islands, and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating Insular Celts from Britain and so are grouped accordingly. The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages . By the time Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BC, they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of western mainland Europe,
2405-580: The Celts with the Iron Age Hallstatt culture which followed it ( c. 1200 –500 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt , Austria, and with the following La Tène culture ( c. 450 BC onward), named after the La Tène site in Switzerland. It proposes that Celtic culture spread westward and southward from these areas by diffusion or migration . A newer theory, " Celtic from
2470-558: The Eastern Hallstatt region ( Noricum ). However, Patrick Sims-Williams notes that these date to the later Roman era, and says they suggest "relatively late settlement by a Celtic-speaking elite". In the late 20th century, the Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to fall out of favour with some scholars, which was influenced by new archaeological finds. 'Celtic' began to refer primarily to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to
2535-486: The Gatehouse of Fleet fortlet was presumably used to subdue them. The Novantae disappear from the historical record after the end of the Roman occupation, as the name was beyond doubt the Roman name for the people who did not use it, with their territory supplanted by the kingdoms of Rheged and Gododdin . A kingdom called Novant appears in the medieval Welsh poem Y Gododdin , attributed to Aneirin . The poem commemorates
2600-502: The Gauls claimed descent from an underworld god (according to Commentarii de Bello Gallico ), and linking it with the Germanic Hel . Others view it as a name coined by Greeks; among them linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel , who suggests it meant "the tall ones". In the first century BC, Roman leader Julius Caesar reported that the Gauls called themselves 'Celts', Latin : Celtae , in their own tongue . Thus whether it
2665-454: The Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered". Because Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) or Celtae , some scholars prefer not to use the term for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. However, they spoke Celtic languages, shared other cultural traits, and Roman historian Tacitus says
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2730-472: The Isle of Man. 'Celt' is a modern English word, first attested in 1707 in the writing of Edward Lhuyd , whose work, along with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain. The English words Gaul , Gauls ( pl. ) and Gaulish (first recorded in the 16–17th centuries) come from French Gaule and Gaulois ,
2795-611: The Novantae directly, but associates their name with the Trinovantes of southeastern England, and provides a map showing the "Novant" occupying Galloway including Kirkcudbrightshire to accompany his discussion of the Gododdin . Barry Cunliffe , an archaeologist, ( Iron Age Communities in Britain , 1971) mentions the Novantae in passing, saying their homeland was Galloway, and with a map showing it, which he attributes to "various sources". David Mattingly ( An Imperial Possession: Britain in
2860-561: The Roman Empire , 2006) mentions them as a people of southwestern Scotland according to Ptolemy, with maps showing them as occupying ditto Galloway. Sheppard Frere ( Britannia: A History of Roman Britain , 1987) mentions the Novantae several times in passing, associating them firmly with the Selgovae and sometimes with the Brigantes. He places them in Galloway, with the Selgovae on the other side of
2925-420: The Roman era. They also constructed hillforts and a small number of crannogs and brochs . Stone-walled huts appeared during the Roman era and the Novantae are thought to have had a centre of some kind at Clatteringshaws near Kirkcudbright , which started out as a palisaded enclosure before being expanded into a set of timber and then stone-faced ramparts. This had been abandoned by the Roman period but there
2990-473: The Selgovae in southern Scotland, but chose to assign Trimontium to a different people who were described in De Situ Britanniae . When De Situ Britanniae was debunked as a fraud in 1845, Roy's misguided placement of Trimontium was retained by some historians, though he was no longer cited for his contribution. Furthermore, some historians not only accepted Roy's placement of Trimontium, but also returned
3055-551: The West ", suggests proto-Celtic arose earlier, was a lingua franca in the Atlantic Bronze Age coastal zone, and spread eastward. Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. After the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe in the 3rd century BC, Celtic culture reached as far east as central Anatolia , Turkey . The earliest undisputed examples of Celtic language are
3120-401: The area at that time, he was likely referring to native strong points such as duns or royal courts . The earliest reliable information on the region of Galloway and Carrick when it was inhabited by the Novantae comes from archaeological discoveries. They lived in small enclosed settlements, most of them less than a single hectare in area and inhabited from the 1st millennium BC through to
3185-664: The burials "dated to roughly the time when Celts are mentioned near the Danube by Herodotus , Ramsauer concluded that the graves were Celtic". Similar sites and artifacts were found over a wide area, which were named the 'Hallstatt culture'. In 1857, the archaeological site of La Tène was discovered in Switzerland. The huge collection of artifacts had a distinctive style. Artifacts of this 'La Tène style' were found elsewhere in Europe, "particularly in places where people called Celts were known to have lived and early Celtic languages are attested. As
3250-666: The early Celts comes from Greco-Roman writers, who often grouped the Celts as barbarian tribes. They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Celts were often in conflict with the Romans , such as in the Roman–Gallic wars , the Celtiberian Wars , the conquest of Gaul and conquest of Britain . By the 1st century AD, most Celtic territories had become part of the Roman Empire . By c. 500, due to Romanisation and
3315-408: The latter 20th century, when it was accepted that the oldest known Celtic-language inscriptions were those of Lepontic from the 6th century BC and Celtiberian from the 2nd century BC. These were found in northern Italy and Iberia, neither of which were part of the 'Hallstatt' nor 'La Tène' cultures at the time. The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory was partly based on ancient Greco-Roman writings, such as
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#17331044496163380-445: The migration of Germanic tribes, Celtic culture had mostly become restricted to Ireland, western and northern Britain, and Brittany . Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from surrounding cultures. Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of
3445-410: The noble Urien and his son, Owain . Owain was slain at the Battle of Catraeth , in which Brythonic warriors of Gododdin went up against the Angles of Deira and Bernicia . Nearly all of the Brythonic warriors were slain and their lands were absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Aneirin wrote Y Gododdin after this battle, in remembrance of his fallen patrons and lords, in which he hints that he
3510-416: The peoples that Ptolemy names in that their location is reliably known due to the way he named several readily identifiable physical features. His Novantarum Cheronesus is the Rhins of Galloway , and his Novantarum promontory is Corsewall Point or the Mull of Galloway . This pins the Novantae to that area. Ptolemy says that their towns were Locopibium and Rerigonium . As there were no towns as such in
3575-555: The possible locations of towns, though not with any conviction. John Rhys ( Celtic Britain , 1904) mentions the Novantae in passing, without any detailed discussion. Local Galwegian historians, writing histories of their own home territory, provide a similarly scant treatment. More recent histories largely treat the Novantae in passing, but sometimes weave them into a story that is not supported by either Ptolemy's map or archaeological evidence, though they are consistently placed in Galloway. John Koch ( Celtic Culture , 2005) doesn't discuss
3640-462: The presence of inscriptions. The modern idea of a Celtic cultural identity or "Celticity" focuses on similarities among languages, works of art, and classical texts, and sometimes also among material artefacts, social organisation , homeland and mythology . Earlier theories held that these similarities suggest a common "racial" ( race is now a contested concept) origin for the various Celtic peoples, but more recent theories hold that they reflect
3705-483: The same origin, referring to the Gauls who invaded southeast Europe and settled in Galatia . The suffix -atai might be a Greek inflection. Linguist Kim McCone suggests it comes from Proto-Celtic *galatis ("ferocious, furious"), and was not originally an ethnic name but a name for young warrior bands . He says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatīs , it would have been natural for
3770-410: The sole legitimate historical reference (Ptolemy), made so that a fictional itinerary in De Situ Britanniae would seem more logical, is retained; and the sole legitimate historical reference is further 'corrected' by moving the Selgovae far from their only known location, greatly expanding Novantae territory in the process. While Roy's historical work is largely ignored due to his unknowing reliance on
3835-442: The southern coast of Scotland until William Roy (1726–1790) placed it far to the east at Eildon Hills , near Newstead . Roy was trying to follow an itinerary given in the 1757 De Situ Britanniae , and moving Ptolemy's Trimontium made the itinerary seem more logical according to his historical work, Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain (1790, published posthumously in 1793). Roy did not alter Ptolemy's placement of
3900-402: The town to the Selgovae by moving their territory so that they would be near Eildon Hills. Ptolemy's placement of the Novantae in Galloway was retained, and since Ptolemy said that they were adjacent to the Selgovae, Novantae territory was greatly expanded beyond Galloway to be consistent with this thesis, which survives in a number of modern histories. The result is that an 'error correction' to
3965-532: The ways in which the Iron Age people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and Celtic origins is debated. The traditional "Celtic from the East" theory, says the proto-Celtic language arose in the late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of central Europe, named after grave sites in southern Germany, which flourished from around 1200 BC. This theory links
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#17331044496164030-445: Was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet who lived during the 6th century. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh , in modern Scotland . From the 17th century, he was usually known as Aneurin. Some records indicate that Aneirin was the son of Caunus (or Caw) and brother to Gildas . According to this version of his life, he
4095-493: Was born at Dumbarton on the River Clyde . However, some scholars debate this parentage, and contend that these records are of later invention and are erroneous. Whoever his father was, Aneirin's mother, Dwywei is mentioned in Y Gododdin . She may be the same lady who, according to Old Welsh pedigrees, married King Dunod who is generally thought to have ruled in the West Riding of Yorkshire . He may also be kin to another Brythonic poet, Cian Gwenith Gwawd. Aneirin's patrons were
4160-436: Was given to them by others or not, it was used by the Celts themselves. Greek geographer Strabo , writing about Gaul towards the end of the first century BC, refers to the "race which is now called both Gallic and Galatic ", though he also uses Celtica as another name for Gaul. He reports Celtic peoples in Iberia too, calling them Celtiberi and Celtici . Pliny the Elder noted the use of Celtici in Lusitania as
4225-501: Was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze Age , circa 1200 BC to 700 BC. The spread of iron-working led to the Hallstatt culture (c. 800 to 500 BC) developing out of the Urnfield culture in a wide region north of the Alps. The Hallstatt culture developed into the La Tène culture from about 450 BC, which came to be identified with Celtic art . In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer unearthed an ancient grave field with distinctive grave goods at Hallstatt , Austria. Because
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